About This Aircraft
The Avro Vulcan XM597 is one of the most famous aircraft in RAF history, renowned for its dramatic role in Operation Black Buck during the 1982 Falklands War. Built in 1963, this B.2 variant became the star of one of the most extraordinary military aviation stories of the Cold War era.
XM597 served with various RAF squadrons as part of Britain's nuclear deterrent force throughout the 1960s and 1970s. By 1982, the Vulcan fleet was scheduled for retirement in June of that year, but the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in April gave these veteran bombers an unexpected and dramatic swansong.
During the Falklands conflict, XM597 participated in the audacious Operation Black Buck missions - the longest-range bombing raids in history at that time. These missions required flying approximately 6,600 nautical miles round trip from Ascension Island to the Falklands, taking up to 16 hours and requiring complex aerial refuelling from multiple Victor tankers.
XM597's most famous mission was Black Buck 6 on the night of 3rd June 1982, commanded by Squadron Leader Neil McDougall. The aircraft was equipped with four AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation missiles with the objective of destroying Argentine radar installations around Port Stanley Airport. The mission required the Vulcan to loiter dangerously over Stanley Airfield for 40 minutes, trying to entice Argentine radar operators to switch on their equipment and provide targets for the Shrike missiles.
Eventually, two missiles were fired, successfully destroying a Skyguard fire control radar installation and killing four Argentine soldiers. However, during the crucial return journey, disaster struck during aerial refuelling. The Vulcan's refuelling probe broke during fuel transfer from a Victor tanker, leaving the aircraft critically short of fuel with two stark options: ditch in the South Atlantic or attempt an emergency diversion to Brazil.
With fuel running dangerously low, McDougall declared a mayday and diverted to Rio de Janeiro's Galeão Airport. In one of the most dramatic moments of the entire conflict, the aircraft landed with so little fuel remaining that it couldn't have made another circuit of the airfield. The crew famously identified themselves to Brazilian air traffic control as "a British aircraft low on fuel, with a loss of cabin pressure and we are from Huddersfield!"
XM597 was impounded by Brazilian authorities, and the crew was held under open arrest for seven days. During this time, they were well treated and even participated in daily football matches with their Brazilian hosts. The remaining Shrike missile was confiscated, and all mission-sensitive documentation had been jettisoned over the ocean during the emergency approach.
A high-level diplomatic deal eventually secured the aircraft's release in exchange for spare parts for Brazilian military Lynx helicopters. XM597 received a replacement refuelling probe at Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island and finally returned to RAF Waddington on 13th June 1982.
Following the Falklands War, XM597 was retired from service and is now preserved at the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune in Scotland. The aircraft stands as a testament to both the courage of its crew and the dramatic final chapter in the Vulcan's distinguished service history, representing one of the most extraordinary emergency diversions in military aviation history.
